A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him. It is necessarily part of the business of a banker to maintain appearances, and to confess a conventional respectability, which is more than human. Life-long practices of this kind make them the most romantic and the least realistic of men.
John Maynard KeynesGovernment machinery has been described as a marvelous labor saving device which enables ten men to do the work of one.
John Maynard KeynesOf the maxims of orthodox finance none, surely, is more anti-social than the fetish of liquidity, the doctrine of that it is a positive virtue on the part of investment institutions to concentrate their resources upon the holding of 'liquid' securities. It forgets that there is no such thing as liquidity of investment for the community as a whole.
John Maynard KeynesTo suggest social action for the public good to the city London is like discussing The Origin of Species to a Bishop sixty years ago.
John Maynard KeynesWhen the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, by which we have exulted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the highest virtues.
John Maynard KeynesI feel no shame at being found still owning a share when the bottom of the market comesโฆI would go much further than that. I should say that it is from time to time the duty of a serious investor to accept the depreciation of his holdings with equanimity and without reproaching himself. โฆ An investorโฆshould be aiming primarily at long-period results, and should be solely judged by these.
John Maynard Keynes